ALFREDO ZALCE--MICHOACAN'S LIVING LEGEND
Gran Maestro Zalce Relaxing in his Living Room
Zalce, art, artists, Mexico, engraving, Mexican, drawing, Maestro Zalce, Alfredo Zalce, city, murals, batik, friends, living, paint, skill, bronze, producing art, Sam Houston, Morelia, dog, trash, imagination, photograph, patterns, square, floor, linoleum, attending, pictures.Summary:
Alfredo Zalce, at age 94, is the elder of Mexico's last living renowned, great revolutionary muralists.
During his early years he became friends with Mexico's older great artists, including Rivera, Tamayo, Siquieros, Orozco, and Kahlo.
He founded art schools and organizations which still function and are of current importance.
When the President of Mexico last visited the Vatican, the one gift from Mexico chosen as a gift to the Pope was a small painting of a Mexican village painted by Maestro Alfredo Zalce.
Unlike other artists, Zalce has spent an entire lifetime avoiding fame and fortune.
His art has been exhibited in every country of the free world, and his numerous gigantic murals and statues represent a vital part of Mexican history.
Zalce nevertheless remains a humble and people-loving man who would rather draw and paint than sell art.
He says that his drawings were not very good, but that his Mother, a professional photographer as was his Father, had complimented the works rather than punishing him for drawing on the floor.
In more recent years he concentrated on "batik."
Batik was probably developed in Java, and is normally thought of as a way to make patterns on cloth, using a wax process to keep the colors from bleeding into one another.
But with Maestro Zalce, batik became a way of producing fine art.
He has made engravings using all engraving techniques.
His plates have included zinc, bronze, wood, and linoleum, but all engravings first required skill in drawing.
Zalce considers one of his hundreds of engravings, "Mexico---Transforming into a Major City" to be somewhat autobiographical.
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